How Latinos Pay for College: 2025 National Trends

Findings

Many Latino students make choices with what they can control as cost-saving measures and rely on various forms of financial aid to make college more affordable.

Consider the following choices Latino students make:

1. Work 30 hours or more while enrolled in college.

2. Enroll part-time or “swirl” between colleges to take courses needed.

3. Decide to enroll at more affordable public colleges near where they live.

4. Choose to live with their parents or off-campus.

5. Rely on federal financial aid over other sources of aid.

6. Leverage grant aid more often than loans.

Leading institutions make choices with what they can control to make college more affordable. Seal of Excelencia certified institutions implement strategies and practices to help make the cost of a college education more affordable. These efforts help inform what institutions can do to increase access to a college education and financially support Latino, and all, students.

Consider the following strategies and practices:

1. Align institutional aid to provide funds to mitigate students’ unexpected financial challenges.

2. Offer paid internships or on-campus employment opportunities so that Latino students can offset the cost of their degree while simultaneously gaining transferable skills.

3. Provide support services to help their students make informed decisions about their college costs.

4. Contain student costs by offering OER (Open Educational Resources) for courses.

5. Advance full tuition scholarships to students with family incomes at or below a specific financial level.

6. Facilitate and simplify access to aid by managing joint admissions and financial aid applications between two-year and four-year college partners.

Intentionally serving Latino, and all, students at scale benefits from knowing and implementing what works to accelerate Latino student success at the state and federal levels based on efforts by policymakers.

Learn more about ways states can lead the way and the federal role to support access to high education in this brief.